Homicide detectives investigate 'suspicious death' of man who had chest pain, died after fight

A man who complained of chest pain after a fight Tuesday in southeastern San Diego later died at a hospital, prompting detectives to open a suspicious-death investigation, police said.

Firefighters initially responded a little after 1:10 p.m. to the call for a man experiencing chest pain in a vacant lot near Imperial Avenue and Valencia Parkway in the Valencia Park neighborhood, San Diego police homicide Lt. Anthony Dupree said.

When officers arrived to provide “non-urgent cover,” San Diego firefighters were performing life-saving measures on the man, Dupree said. He was eventually taken to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

The man was identified as 51-year-old Joseph Ives of San Diego.

“Officers learned the victim had been involved in a physical altercation with another male, and after the altercation told a witness he was having chest pain,” Dupree said in a statement.

The victim did not have any obvious signs of trauma to his body, but homicide investigators were called to the scene as a precaution, Dupree said. The detectives were investigating it as a “suspicious death.”

It was unclear when or where the fight occurred, but Dupree said in an email Tuesday night that detectives were still investigating the details of what happened.

“We don’t have any (information) indicating any weapons were used during the fight, or the duration of the fight, (or) who started it,” Dupree said.

Anyone with relevant information about the fight and the man’s death was asked to call the San Diego Police Department’s homicide unit at (619) 531-2293, or San Diego County Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at (888) 580-8477.